The NCAA Eligibility Center

The NCAA Eligibility Center (formally known as the NCAA Clearinghouse) is an arm of the NCAA responsible for determining the eligibility of student athletes at the DI and DII levels. All NCAA student athletes must register with the Eligibility Center before they can receive an scholarship or play college sports for an NCAA school.

5 Quick Facts About the NCAA Eligibility Center

180,000 student athletes register with the NCAA each year, only 42% of those athletes (76,000) are recruited by a DI or DII universities

The NCAA receives over 500,000 pieces of mail and 180,000 phone calls each year

Registering with the NCAA does not help you get discovered or recruited by college coaches

You should only register with the NCAA Eligibility Center if you are currently being recruited by DI or DII coaches

There are new eligibility requirements for athletes graduating in 2016 or later, 15% of athlete who meet the current academic standards would not be eligible under the new eligibility requirements (40% of basketball players and 35% of football players would not be eligible)

NCAA Eligibility Requirements

Your academic eligibility is determined using a combination of your high school graduation, GPA from your core courses and your SAT or ACT test scores.

You must graduate from high school

You must meet the minimum GPA in your core courses

You must meet the minimum requirements on your SAT or ACT test scores.

Your GPA and SAT/ACT test scores must combine to meet the minimum requirements laid out on the sliding scale

New NCAA Eligibility Rules for Class of 2016

The NCAA has raised the minimum GPA you need in your core courses from 2.0 to 2.3.

On the NCAA sliding scale (combining your GPA and SAT or ACT scores) you will need to score approximately .5 higher on your GPA for the same test scores. For example, if you scored 700 on the SAT (math and reading only) under the old rules you would need a GPA of 2.8. With the new rules you will need a minimum GPA of 3.25 in order to play as a freshman (if you have a 2.8 or above, you can still receive a scholarship but will not be eligible to play your freshman year and this will greatly reduce your scholarship opportunities).

The new rules require that 10 of your 16 core course be completed before your senior year of high school and that you will not be allowed to retake any of those classes for a higher score. This is extremely important because for many athletes do not think about their eligibility until their junior year of high school and for many it will be too late to make up the core courses they need.

It is absolutely critical talk to you high school councilor and coach to make sure you are on track to be eligible. The NCAA does not help athletes become eligible, this needs to be done by you and your high councilors.

NCAA Eligibility Center Address

If you are a high school councilor and need to send your student athletes transcripts, they are to be mailed to NCAA Eligibility Center: Certification Processing P.O. Box 7136 Indianapolis, Indiana 46207-7136. If you are an athlete or parent you must be mailing only official sealed copies of transcripts.

NCAA Eligibility Center Contact

Be forewarned, the NCAA’s customer service channels are very limited for the amount of phone calls and emails they get. This is not because they are trying to ignore athletes and coaches but because they have to focus the majority of their resources on processing the nearly 180,000 athletes who register with the NCAA each year. If you need to call the NCAA they can be reached at 877-262-1492. Your best option for checking on the status of your account is to login to your online account or have the athletic department of the schools recruiting you check on your account.